I have been practicing in the field of Paediatrics for more than 20 years and my current post is that of a Consultant in Paediatrics. Having been trained in Paediatric Nephrology, I am also in charge of hospitalized children with renal conditions in my Department and also responsible for the Renal Clinic. Apart from my involvement in Paediatric Nephrology, I retain an interest in Infectious Diseases and I have been a long-standing ESPID member. My main focus in ID is mostly in the area where ID meets Paediatric Nephrology that is urinary tract infections and the associated pathogens and immune response, vaccinations in chronic kidney conditions, and the effect of unusual infections and antibiotics on children’s kidneys. This last aspect of my clinical and research involvement brought me to rickettsial infections, which are not unusual in Crete, our area of practice. Thus, having the chance to care for some patients with these intriguing infections I was also fascinated by their epidemiology, history, ecology, and their amazing spectrum of clinical manifestations and enjoyed all my relevant publications. Most recently, a review for PIDJ, Galanakis E, Bitsori M. When to Think of Rickettsia. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2019; 38 :S20-S2.

Paolo Bonanni is Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Florence, Italy. He has been a member of the National Vaccination Commission of the Italian Ministry of Health and of the WHO European Technical Advisory Group of Experts on vaccine-related issues. He acts as expert consultant for the ECDC, collaborating on the preparation of Guidance documents, and is currently adviser on the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board. He is Director of the Post‐Graduate Course on 'Vaccines and Vaccination Strategies’, now in its 21st edition, attended by about 700 HCPs involved in vaccination from all over Italy. He received several grants from the Italian Ministry of Public Education on vaccine‐preventable infection projects and was responsible for a research unit in 4 EU‐funded projects: ANTRES (antibiotic resistance in Latin America), EURO‐HEPNET (network for surveillance of vaccine‐preventable hepatitis), VACSATC (vaccine safety, attitudes and training), EURO-HEP SCREEN (screening practices, counselling, referral and treatment for hepatitis B and C in migrants). He is currently responsible for a research unit of the EU-Innovative Medicines Initiative, Project DRIVE (Development of Robust and Innovative Vaccine Effectiveness for influenza immunization). He has authored and co‐authored more than 250 scientific papers published in international and national journals.

Associate Professor Asha Bowen is a clinician scientist working at Perth Children’s Hospital as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and Head of Healthy Skin and ARF prevention team at the Telethon Kids Institute. Dr Bowen's clinical role informs her research as a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Fellow. Dr Bowen was awarded her PhD at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin in 2015 for a large randomized controlled trial on the treatment of impetigo in remote Indigenous children. She is the lead investigator for the SToP trial to “see, treat and prevent” skin infections, a large cluster randomised trial with a stepped wedge design recruiting from 2019-2022 throughout the Kimberley region in Western Australia. Dr Bowen also leads an observational study in the Kimberley to better understand the superficial Strep A infections, impetigo and pharyngitis, to improve primary prevention of rheumatic fever. Dr Bowen and her team launched the inaugural National Healthy Skin Guideline to guide clinicians in the recognition and evidence-based treatment of skin infection. She is also the Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Infectious Diseases committee and Deputy Chair of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases clinical research network.

Maria Cristina de Cunto Brandileone is the Director of the Laboratory of Meningitis, Pneumonia, and Pneumococcal Infections at the Adolfo Lutz Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. She has years of experience in laboratory-based surveillance for invasive diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitis, and Haemophilus influenzae. Dr Brandileone has also provided assistance to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, public health laboratories throughout Latin America by the Pan American Health Organization. Streptococcus pneumoniae and Pneumococcal Vaccines have been her main focus of investigation for many years.

Professor Emeritus Lulu C. Bravo, MD Professor Emeritus College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila Lulu Bravo is a Professor Emeritus at the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila. She is the former Vice Chancellor for Research and Executive Director of the National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila (2005 – 2011) and current head of the Vaccine Study Group of the NIH – UPM. She is the President of the Immunization Partners in Asia Pacific (IPAP), current Executive Director and past President of the International Society of Tropical Pediatrics (ISTP) 2008 – 2011, past Chair and Founder of the Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal Disease Prevention (ASAP) 2007 – 2011, and Executive Director, Sec-General (1998 – 2006) & past President of the Asian Society for Pediatric Infectious Disease (ASPID) 2006 – 2008. She has served in various capacities in many other Asian medical and professional societies and as WHO Technical Advisor. She has served as well in national medical organizations such as PMA, PPS, PIDPS, PSMID and the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination (PFV) of which she is the founding President and current Executive Director. In the international scene, she is a member of the Rota Council, Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Experts (PACE) and member of the Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI). Her work has earned for her various national and international honors and awards in the professional, academic and research fields, including the Outstanding Physician (2009) and the prestigious Dr. Jose P. Rizal Memorial Award for Academe (2011) given by Philippine Medical Association, the 2012 Asian Outstanding Pediatrician Award given by the Asia Pacific Pediatric Association and 2018 Outstanding Professional in Medicine given by the Professional Regulation Commission of the Philippines. In 2008, she presented both written and oral evidence to the UK’s House of Commons to justify the $ 2.5 Billion vaccination advance market commitment to provide needed vaccines for the developing world. She was named Pneumonia Fighter in 2018 by the JustActions Organization, a US-based advocacy movement and corporation associated with People Empowerment. Dr. Lulu Bravo completed her MD, pediatric residency and subspecialty training in infectious disease at Philippine General Hospital-College of Medicine of the University of the Philippines Manila. She supplemented her fellowship in pediatric infectious disease at the University of Texas Southwestern Health Science Center in Dallas, USA in 1986. She has published more than 100 scientific articles, books and book chapters in both local and international circles.

Dr Britton is a paediatrician and infectious diseases physician at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and Associate Professor in child and adolescent health with the University of Sydney. He is an early career clinician researcher with expertise in surveillance of severe childhood infectious disease especially neurological infections. He co-leads the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) network in which he is lead investigator for surveillance of childhood encephalitis, Acute Flaccid Paralysis and from 2020 Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally associated with SARS-COV-2 (PIMS-TS).

Dr Ana Paula Burian is a pediatrician and infectiologist, and coordinator at the Reference Center for Special Immunobiologicals (CRIE) in Vitoria, Espirito Santo. Dr Burian is also a member of the Commission on Vaccination Calendars and Consensus of the Brazilian Society for Immunizations (SBIm) and President of the Brazilian Society for Immunizations – Regional SBIm Espirito Santo.